What are its advantages and drawbacks? What can it do and what not? Who are XP Deus main rivals and what makes them ones?

I used this device since 2014 (in concluding part of this review I’ll give you the reasons why I sold it). I can’t even count the hours I spent walking with it and name all the places I’ve been.

These were city beaches, fields, parks, abandoned gardens, military training grounds and even the abandoned factory. I’ve done my best to get into this metal detector, though I’m still not sure if I succeeded. Now, let’s begin from the device story.

A historical reference

The company was founded in 1998 by Alain Loubet and his brother. Their first metal detectors were of manual assembly and only in 2000 their XP Adventis MD attracted some attention. According to the manufacturer the groundwork for its future best XP Deus MD was done in 2004, when wireless headphones XP WS1 and XP WS3 appeared on the market. In 2008 XP Deus metal detector prototype was demonstrated on practical tests. The company started selling it in 2009. This rather light weighted, highly responsive and wireless metal detector caused a furor then.

Nowadays, well…this device is already 8 years old. Though it is inexcusably old as for any device in electronic world (just think of your mobiles), XP Deus is more than relevant and up to date even now.

We should mention that XP Deus metal detector cracked the European market quite fast, but the USA and Australia markets were still closed for it due to their own manufacturers monopoly.

In 2011 XP relocated to its new manufacturing site in Toulouse (France). Detector Electronics Corp. appeared to be the company’s authorized representative in the USA and enabled trading in America since 2012.

Nothing special had happened to the company since then and till the middle of 2016. The company produced several new coils, some accessories, a new type of wireless headphones and a case to carry MDs. In 2016 XP presented two new coils 22.5 HF for treasure hunting to find gold. After that Minelab filed a suit against XP.

Minelab claims that XP Detectors has infringed Minelab’s patent and it seeks redress from XP in form of prohibitory injunction from the court to manufacture XP metal detectors, compensation for losses as well as sue charges etc.

Well, this indicates that the market of metal detectors has become quite small for lots of manufacturing companies and a new rival isn’t welcome on American market, so here comes “see you in court” approach. I didn’t get to the bottom of this conflict and I’m not even aware whether it is over yet. I’d be very grateful, if you write what you know about it in your comments below.

In 2017 the company produced a new Pinpoint MI-6 and upgraded XP Deus firmware up to version 4.0

XP Deus review

Certainly, this is a metal detector of a professional level. But XP Deus as any other MD has its merits and demerits, which I intend to cover in the current review.

I’d like to warn you here, that the information given below is my POV based on my own experience of using this metal detector. Since, first of all, my task is to provide you with unbiased information and independent evaluation of all positive and negative sides of using XP Deus metal detector. Maybe this review will help someone to make his mind whether to buy the device or not.

Advantages

Settings

XP Deus has a whole range of features and settings for almost any user’s demand and for any search tasks. That’s why if you are a newbie and large number of settings in professional devices drives you crazy, you don’t have to be afraid in this case.

XP Deus is good for beginners as well and this fact doesn’t affect the number of treasures you find. Only the user’s experience and other factors may influence how many targets you find.

As for the experienced treasure hunters, they’ll find many settings and adjustments which are missing in other metal detectors and they’ll be able to customize the MD to meet some specific requirements, tasks and search conditions.

You need to go metal detecting over some beach covered with rubbish – here you are, locate a target at maximum depth – here you go, look for some specific type of coins – no problem. All these can be easily performed with XP Deus plus your own experience in treasure hunting.

High target response

This characteristic is implemented at a high level of quality due to the device high-speed processor and it plays an important part in metal detecting. Imagine that a nail, a coin and another nail lie 1 inch apart from each other. Your task is to find and dig the coin.

But iron signals from two nails lying close to it will hide the coin, so most of metal detectors available on the market nowadays just won’t see it and give you only the iron signal.

High response time of this MD ensures that it finds the coin. After adjusting the device and waving with its coil above such targets, XP Deus can identify all three targets and give the user corresponding signals, which will say that there is the coin between the two nails.

It is very important because quite a lot of places where we dig are full of some iron containing or other rubbish as well as valuable targets. XP Deus copes with the task, while other metal detectors figuratively saying, “get blind”; therefore, you won’t come back without any findings.

A telescopic rod

There is a basic S-shaped upper rod with a pistol grip, middle and bottom rods, but you don’t need to assemble and dismount the device each time – the rod has telescopic design. It takes about several seconds to get the MD ready to work.

This ensures maximum comfort when you go treasure hunting and essentially saves your time. You get to the place, get the rod ready in a split second, turn on the control unit and just go metal detecting.

The MD weight

I really don’t know what can be said in this respect, since the device weights (2,14 pounds) together with its coil and control unit and I don’t feel this load at all. It is surprising how light weighted and comfortable in use the device is if compared with most of famous metal detectors.

Of course, proper balance is important and Deus has all of it. Easy to grab rubber handle with correctly calculated inclination angle contributes to ergonomic properties of the metal detector.

A wireless device

There are no wires anywhere – XP Deus uses completely wireless technologies. You don’t have to spend your time winding wires on a rod tightly, the wire doesn’t hit the rod or grass any more, no false alarms, no worries about the rod conjunctions and wire connections. If is starts raining, you just put the control unit into your pocket or fasten it and go on metal detecting.

The metal detector has wireless headphones in its set. Moreover, using the headphones you can adjust some device settings when the control unit is off or just without it. There is no signal transmission delay in the real-time scale, which is another valuable advantage. As for the headphones, it is better to buy WS4 than WS5 IMHO. It is hot to wear WS5 (especially in summer) and they are completely uncomfortable if you are in the forest. They have another drawback — not dismountable control unit. On the other hand, they fit tight and damp down all side tones completely.

The device control unit

Main control unit of the device is the size of a smartphone, it weighs just 100 g (3.5 ounces), it has “click-clack” fixation so you can wear it on a belt or in a chest pocket – it doesn’t matter since the device is wireless. Earlier the control unit used to have a magnetic holder, but the manufacturer has substituted it with a click.

By the way, the control unit has a port to plug in some standard wired headphones and a USB port if necessary. The manufacturer occasionally introduces Deus firmware upgrades and you can download them from a PC for free.

A multi-frequency device

The possibility of quick switching between MD frequencies while using it has been a dream of all treasure hunters for quite a while. The good news is that XP Deus provides you with this option – you can do the above mentioned without dismounting the device, changing its coils or anything else.

It means that it can work with several frequencies – such as 4, 8, 12, 18 KHz. Though, they don’t work simultaneously, only one frequency at a time!

We know that each metal has its own electrical conductivity as the targets we are looking for have different size and depth of location. Therefore, the multiple-frequency capability allows us adjusting the MD to search some specific targets and metals.

It is better to use 4.0 KHz frequency when looking for large targets with high conductivity. To search “all metal” of all sizes it’s better to use so called “neutral” or center frequency 7.6 KHz. This is the frequency most of simple metal detectors use.

If the task is to find small coins or some objects, then 11.6 and 17.6 KHz frequencies will do better. Thus, by selecting different frequency values we can vary the device capabilities and adjust it to detect some specific targets. As for me, I think that 11.7 KHz frequency is the most multi-purpose one as for targets location depth, so I mainly used this one. But there is a peculiarity here – you should keep in mind, that you’ll probably need all range of the frequencies when creating your own programs for certain search conditions and tasks.

Let me mention, that this metal detector isn’t as good as Minelab E-trec and CTX 3030. Since these ones operate with 28 frequencies simultaneously and provide the user with highly precise information about the target. It’d be great if someday XP Deus will also have the ability to work with several frequencies at the same time, though sadly the manufacturer isn’t planning to consider this idea so far.

Search modes

If I’m not mistaken XP Deus has about 9 pre-set modes as well as an option to create your own user’s search modes by changing the given ones at your discretion. Actually, you are free to adjust almost anything in XP Deus – discrimination function, sensitivity etc. There are even several modes for ground balance function: automatic, manual, beach and semi-automatic modes.

In a word, it’s quite hard to find the MD as flexible as this one. The advantages of having the device with flexible settings as for the search area and conditions are obvious for experienced users. However, what about those who have very little idea about all these menus-submenus of response time settings, audio tone identification etc.?

With XP Deus you can easily learn all this stuff on a “simple-to-complex” basis, starting from the embedded pre-set modes of the MD. Step by step, as you get to know the device, accumulate information, experience and understand general ideas of metal detecting you’ll be able to make your MD more and more efficient in any type of treasure hunting.

Assembling

This metal detector is manufactured solely in France without any participation of Asian companies, since the company has its own facilities in Europe. Naturally, the assembling and materials are if the highest European quality. You see it right when you take Deus in your hands for the first time.

XP Deus has excellent design that individuates the device from other metal detectors available on the market. It is clear that the MD was wisely constructed to combine user’s comfort and aesthetically pleasing appearance of the device. Due to its telescopic rod you’ll spend just a few seconds to get your metal detector ready to work, as well as you can pack it fast and put into an average sized rucksack.

Materials

Materials that are used to manufacture XP Deus impress by their reliability and sustainability. The construction can withstand high loads, which makes XP Deus more durable in use. Some XP Deus users decided to perform the device crash-test. Whatever they did to it: put its control unit and arm rest beneath the wheels of a car, they even stepped on the upper rod of the device – nothing could damage the MD.

Waterproofness

This metal detector is a waterproof one. The coil and the device itself are absolutely protected and you can surely use this MD for jewelry hunting on the beach. However, keep in mind that you can’t put the control unit into the water. You can turn it into an amphibia device though. All you need to get is a small set for under water hunting (XP Deus Certified Underwater Water Kit) and now you can put the MD into water without any concerns. The Underwater Kit includes: specialized corded antenna with fasteners, vacuum headphones and waterproof case for control unit which can be fastened to the hand. Besides it is convenient to wash it.

XP Deus also requires service, i.e. you should wash and dust it, clean its coil etc. (bearing in mind that the MD isn’t a cheap one). The device is quite simple in this respect, so the maintenance doesn’t take much time.

Since it consists of small number of components it’s enough just to put it into the water (without the control unit) and wipe it after that. Though all above mentioned may seem really unimportant, these small things compose the MD operability.

USB and software updates

Another benefit XP Deus offers is without doubt the ability to update its software with no additional expenses. Each time the manufacturer improves the device software it changes it for the better. New firmware allows plugging-in some additional accessories, switching the frequencies, it obtains new pre-set search modes and other stuff.

At that the new software can be easily downloaded from the company’s official site and you can upgrade your device up to the new version and extend its performance without buying anything extra.

Disadvantages

Batteries

A very interesting and unusual constructive approach was used in XP Deus design – its coil, headphones and control unit should be charged separately, i.e. there are three autonomous battery charging units. This is one of the MD drawbacks.

New XP Deus battery charge is enough for 11-12 hours of continuous treasure hunting (depending on the device settings). After this the battery gets low and the device turns off.

It seems that 12 hours is quite enough and not all metal detectors can demonstrate such operational duration. However, you don’t always have a chance to recharge the battery. So, if you have gone quite far this can be a problem.

Besides, you may forget to charge the battery, so you come to the place, go metal detecting for an hour and then the battery discharges and you have to go home. It is a pity.

Of course, you may say that there are all sorts of power banks and you can use them to charge the battery right in the fields, but you still have to buy them. Besides high-quality power bank is rather expensive. That’s why buying XP Deus implies extra expenses to get various accessories you can hardly do without. All three batteries (control unit, coil, headphones) in XP Deus are lithium-pol ones which means that eventually they start retaining the charge worse and therefore lose it very fast. I.e. the embedded batteries wear out and your Deus is capable of only 3-4 operation hours instead of 11-12 like it was in the beginning. Sooner or later it is inevitable (the manufacturer states that it happens in 4-5 years in average).

This implicates that you’ll have to turn to the service center to replace the batteries or do it on your own. Furthermore, XP Deus batteries should be exploited properly. Namely: they shouldn’t get completely discharged, the device should be stored under certain temperature and conditions, since lithium batteries don’t like when it’s cold. The price

This metal detector is a professional one, its complete package costs 1500$ on Amazon.com. Besides this XP Deus requires some number of accessories which sooner or later you will have to buy. One day you see that you need a case for the control unit, since you want it to serve longer, another day you want to go treasure hunting on the beach and you have to buy a waterproof case etc. then you start dreaming of buying a carrying bag and power bank for the MD and so on.

No noise cancel function

When you go metal detecting close to high-voltage power lines or within some electromagnetic field the device doesn’t work properly. It becomes impossible to use it and you have to decrease its sensitivity and change parameters which is followed by another problem, namely the detecting quality gets lower.

Though you can’t really consider the above mentioned as a significant demerit, but flagship metal detectors produced by other companies have this noise cancel function.

You have to learn how to use the MD

A lot of beginners after using some low-cost metal detector for over several years, buy XP Deus and start complaining that the device is complicated, not user-friendly, it has lots of settings and parameters and they can’t get what are they for. Such users form the majority of those, who hate this MD. You should read the manual, users’ blogs and forums, understand what is each setting responsible for and learn to apply all this knowledge.

I must say, that despite having some pre-set modes the professional MD takes professional study and attitude. That’s why arm yourself with patience and time to get to know the device.

Discrimination function

Another essential drawback of Deus is its discriminator – it is really awful. VDI numbers (even if the target is clearly non-ferrous) change depending on its depth, location in the ground and maybe even frequency of solar flares affects them.

That’s why the MD users are forced to sharpen their ears since they can’t trust VDI numbers. However, you also should be cautious when trusting Deus sound signals because even 4 tone polyphonic signal doesn’t ensure its complete informativeness. Deus loves identifying ferrous targets of various shapes and sizes as non-ferrous ones. For corroded iron target the device produces maximum high tone and short “coin” signal with VDI numbers in the range 94-98 (where cupper and large silver targets are also included).

I do know that all metal detectors suffer from this drawback, but sadly Deus has no rivals in this respect.

ACE-250 or X-terra 705 make much fewer number of such mistakes. Over last 2 seasons I did have a chance to compare signal identification performed by XP Deus (using various settings) to that of other metal detectors. Metal identification accuracy is definitely not Deus’ strong point.

Dependence on ground type

Over mixed complex ground, highly mineralized soils XP Deus search depth is compared poorly with any other metal detector. I will repeat myself and say that any other MD has better search depth value than this one. Without any exception.

Making ground balance higher to (theoretically) increase the search depth produces lots of ‘false alarms’ and by decreasing the ground balance to achieve convenient level of noise you lessen the search depth correspondingly. It is very hard to find the compromise decision when working over complex ground. As a result, you continuously miss targets that are later found by those who follow your route.

XP Deus vs E-trac

I was lucky to work with both MDs and compare them in the fields. I should mention, that I formed my opinion before version 4.0 of the device was introduced on the market and maybe now things are different.

I spent 3 years working with Deus, it was about 40-90 full-fledged treasure hunting a year. Without false modesty, I can say that I’ve mastered the device as fully as it is possible at all.

So, in the end, I’ve made a decision to get rid of it, since I’ve come to a final conclusion that all its incontestable advantages (the weight and remarkable response time) are being crossed out by its huge drawbacks. Other metal detector parameters are a priority to me. They are stability over various ground types (not in the air), precise discrimination function, targets identification depth. And these are the parameters that make XP Deus worse than Minelab E-trac.

On the other hand, Minelab E-trac is incredibly heavy and slow device. You should walk with it in a completely different way, if compared to devices of low and middle level and this MD has much more complicated settings.

My opinion is: if you aren’t an experienced treasure hunter, you should buy XP Deus. If you want to switch from a simpler device, you also should buy XP Deus. But if you need to obtain maximal efficiency then you should get Minelab E-trac or Minelab CTX-3030.

XP Deus Final Verdict

XP Deus is an interesting MD and if you can, you definitely should purchase it. The device needs attentive study and serious-minded approach to master it. Once you need to switch from a simple MD to a professional one without getting crazy this is the metal detector you are looking for.

The MD is for those, who like comfort and long fast strolls. The device disadvantages are search depth and discrimination function performance which could have been better. Though not everyone needs high search depth values and a spade is the best discriminator ever.